‘Oppenheimer’ To Drive Record Tourism to Atomic Bomb Site

This is the other power of movies: the 2023 film Oppenheimer is expected to drive record tourism in New Mexico this year as thousands of visitors are expected to descend on the Trinity site, where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated.

According to the Associated Press, officials at the southern New Mexico destination are preparing for the droves of tourists whose interests may have been sparked by the Christopher Nolan-helmed blockbuster.

Trinity Site (which is near the impact zone for missiles fired at White Sands Missile Range) is normally closed to the public, but is opened twice a year in April and October.

Officials have warned that the wait to enter could be as long as two hours and that no more than 5,000 visitors will likely be able to enter within the opening hours of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The film, which was famously released on the same weekend as Barbie (cue the Barbenheimer phenomenon), set an unusual box office record when it became the highest-grossing film ever not to reach the top slot at the domestic box office.

Nolan's film, which stars Cillian Murphy as the titular physicist Robert Oppenheimer — as well as Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett and a slew of A-list character actors — also became the most successful World War II-set movie of all time after firing past $500 million at the global box office.